No Sooner Said
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: A feud between Chet and Johnny takes on new meaning during an excavation fire. A hero proves his worth with action.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Thirty Four

34. No Sooner Said Season Five- Episode 34 Short summary-  
A feud between Chet and Johnny takes on new meaning during an excavation fire. A hero proves his worth with action.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
Roy and Johnny worry about a Chet who was saying nothing untoward for once to anyone. Gage suffers a memory of regret concerning Kelly and enters a *flashback* about.  
Station 51 responds to a man trapped beneath a caterpillar tractor.  
Gage worries about the paramedic refresher coming up and bugs a mouth zippered Dixie about them. Station 51 responds to an excavation fire at a coal mining company. Chet Kelly is sent down an empty shaft by rope to check out an underground fire and he makes a disturbing discovery, bad air. The gang realizes the trouble and hauls him to safety, only to find Chet apneic. They resuscitate him and then black out one by one as a creeping gas overcomes them all. Chet, protected by an oxygen mask, reawakens and effects a transmission to summon hazmat help for everybody. Kelly awakens at Rampart to find himself and the rest of the gang being carbon monoxide treated and in isolation wards... for chicken pox that they found on Marco. The gang gets on each other's nerves during the days it takes to run the infection's course.  
Kelly gets positively conceited about his singled handed rescue of them all and Gage retorts right back at him with a cutting remark ....*end flashback*  
Roy sighs on the current cancelled rescue, telling Johnny that his sharp comment then must be what's making Chet ignore everyone now. Squad 51 responds to a call to a residence that had a service dog in attendance. On the way Gage and Roy debate about the new 911 phone system trials. They find a house fire in progress and that upsets Johnny even more when he realized the 911 operator failed to gather critical information about the call being a blaze in progress. They hastily summon their engine and others and then effect a rescue on their own and save a dwarfened cripple. The help dog is discovered not to have followed them out, so a search is begun by the gang to find him. Dixie is mesmerized by the gang's report of the research they'd recently done concerning the coal fire that almost killed them a week earlier. Roy wins the bet on who called 911 for the handicapped man and service dog fire.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Five, Episode Thirty Four.  
No Sooner Said... Debut Launch: June 1st, 2006.

*  
From: "crash200225" Date: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:38 am Subject: Not One Word

Paramedics Roy DeSoto and John Gage were heading back to the station from Rampart after their first and only run of the shift. They had been toned out at 1100 hours for a sick child. Arriving at the scene, they had found a two year old boy with a very high fever and his nearly hysterical mother.

"Man, I hope the little fella is going to be all right." Johnny sighed.

"Me, too." replied Roy. "When Chris was that age, we had to make a few trips to the hospital for high fevers. Mostly in the middle of the night. The fevers usually broke within a few hours after treatment, and he was back to his normal self the next day."

"So, what do you think is wrong with Chet today?" Gage wondered.

"Huh?" Roy knew he should be used to his partner's sudden changes in subjects, but he was still amazed at how fast he could shift gears.

"Chet, you know, bushy hair, mustache, pain in the..."

"What about him?"

"He hasn't said one word all shift, Roy. Not one word."

"Did you ever think he might not have anything to say?" Roy knew it was an absurd question as soon as it left his mouth.

"Chet Kelly? Having nothing to say?" Johnny snorted. "And he hasn't bugged me yet either. What's he up to?"

It dawned on Roy that the station HAD been unusually quiet all morning. He wondered briefly if Chet was coming down with something. The name 'Chet Kelly' and the words 'nothing to say' were like oil and water. They didn't mix.

Johnny snapped his fingers and announced, "I got it. He's trying to bug me by NOT bugging me."

"John, I need to tell you something." Roy stated with the most serious voice he could muster.

Concern etched Johnny's face as he turned to his partner. Roy always called him 'Johnny', 'partner', or even 'Junior', but never John.

"I'm scared." muttered Roy.

Surprised by the words, Johnny stuttered. "What... What's wrong?"

"What you just said... made sense to me. I think I'm beginning to understand your logic."

"Haha, Roy. First Chet isn't talking and now you're the joker. Why I put up with..."

Roy smiled and tuned Johnny out. Just as he backed the squad into the bay while Johnny used the radio to announce that the squad was back in quarters, the tones sounded. Roy idled the motor while they waited for the dispatcher's voice to come over the speaker.

##Station 51....##

-  
Photos: None.

*  
From: "mkmg365"  
Date: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:23 am Subject: No Sooner Said

In Johnny's recollection, yesterday had started out as completely normal between him and Chet. And that had been way before he had felt the need to even tell Roy about it.

Johnny thought back to eight am the previous day,  
remembering how it had all begun.

-------------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny had been changing in the locker room when Chet walked in.

"Yeah, and she says..," Johnny said to his partner.

"Don't tell me. Let me guess.." replied Chet, interrupting.

All of a sudden the tones began to sound...

-  
Photos: None.

*  
From: Roxy Dee  
Date: Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:32 pm Subject: Canyon Run~~

##Engine 51, Squad 51, Engine 8. Man trapped. A half mile south of Red Rock Canyon. A half mile south of Red Rock Canyon. Cross street, Scenic Drive. Time out : 0824.##

Cap told dispatch that his crew was responding to the call. With Roy and Johnny in the squad, Marco, Cap, Chet and Mike in the engine, they were off. At the end of the driveway, they flipped on their lights and sirens which cleared the road of traffic.

Their drive took them away from the city and into the rural mountainous area of northeastern Los Angeles County.

Station 51 arrived at the scene ten minutes later to see, among the tall pines and spruce, a dirt road with broken road block bunkers cast all around. Men in hard hats were down in a ditch full of rhododendron and sumac surrounding a tipped over bulldozer.

Cap jumped out of the cab and a foreman ran up to him. He began to tell him what had happened.

"It's Charley. The cat we were using to knock over those trees lost its brakes and shot down into the canyon, out of control. It crashed into a tree before Charley could leap off and it fell on him. A couple of guys tried to free him but it's no use." ansed the foreman.

"Just leave that to us and clear your men out of there. I don't want anybody else to get hurt." said Hank.

The foreman got his crew out of the canyon just as Engine 8 arrived. Captain Stone came over to Cap who filled him in.

Hank was thoughtful. He turned to Chet. "How about climbing down the cliff to see how badly he's trapped, Kelly?"

Chet nodded and went down, spilling dirt in a rain as he slid down the slope.  
He got to the bull dozer. Chet saw Charley lying in a furrow made by the cat. The heavy machine's roofing section was solidly fallen on top of his legs.

"Charley?!" Chet yelled from where he could see the injured man in between a tangle of trees. He couldn't get closer because of snapped tree limbs and thick underbrush. There was no reply or any signs of movement from the man. "Charley!!" he shouted louder.

Chet got no answer. Kelly walked around the debris to the other side of the bulldozer. He saw a thin stream of gas seeping down the slope. "Hey, Cap!" he yelled up the slope.

"Yeah?" Stanley shouted back, shielding his eyes under his helmet to block out the worst of the rising sun's glare.

"He's unconscious and it looks like both his legs are pinned under the cab's roofing!"reported Chet.

"Can it be cut with a power saw?" Stanley asked.

"It's possible, but you better hurry. There's gas leaking all over." Kelly replied.

At that, Cap sent Johnny and Roy down the loosely bound slope, using rappelling ropes to aid them. "I'll send the stokes down with your gear as soon as you're ready for it." he told them.

"Ok.." grunted Gage as he helped Roy rope bounce over a cat tumbled pine tree.

Mike Stoker and a few of Captain Stone's men soon followed the two paramedics down with the portable saw and they started cutting on the bars of the caterpillar's roof under a protective wash of hose spray. They decided not to wait for a foam truck before setting to work.

Thick corded lifelines tied off from both fire engines kept the cat from shifting any from its precarious angle perched on top of the man. The last thing they wanted was its bottom heavy chassis re-rolling back down and crushing Charley and his rescuers to death.

Cap and Marco got the stokes out of the engine and tied guidelines to the front and back of the stretcher. They slid it down over the side of the road with the most critical boxes of medical equipment attached, the I.V.s, splints and the oxygen resuscitator. Stone's men were fast at cutting away the branches separating all the firemen from their victim and soon, Roy and Johnny were able to get over to the stilled man.

"Charley... Can you hear me?" asked Roy as he knelt, pulled off a glove and felt for a carotid. He looked up at Gage. "He's alive." He shouted the man's name once again, loudly so that it could be heard over the buzz of the saw's spinning blade.

He got a low moan for an answer following a sternal rub. "Easy. I'm with the fire department and we're gonna get you out of here in a minute, so hang on as best as you can, ok?"

He got another moan from the bloodied man lying on his side in the dirt.  
But the noises he made weren't intelligible words.

Johnny started Charley on a fast flow of O2 through a plastic mask after making sure he was able to breathe well enough without being helped.

Roy crawled under the roof and slid into a hole Charley's coworkers had apparently tried to dig out around him. He grunted when landed on his face at the bottom. "Ouch!"

"Roy, you ok?" Johnny demanded immediately, half rising from where he was cutting away Charley's clothing in a search for other signs of injuries.

"I'm...ok.. Just in a pocket.." DeSoto answered. "Startled me, that's all."

"You sure?"

"Yeah..."

Johnny listened for a few seconds to his partner's repositioning scuffling. Finally, he was convinced Roy was ok. "So far, his chest's clear. His trauma looks like it's all below the waist level, Roy. I got no rib fractures or any obvious gross bleeding past a large lac on his forehead."

Roy grunted assent and checked Charley's branch bent legs with his own shears and hands carefully. He found a compound fracture on the right one and a bad cut on the left just above the knee. He got a fireman applying direct pressure over the second wound as soon as he found it. Then he backed out of the hole and waggled some fingers for one of the splints another fireman was holding strap ready for him. DeSoto asked Stoker. "How much longer? He's bleeding out badly from an arterial tear."

Mike answered. "About two more minutes... Three, tops. And most of that time we'll just be moving tree branches out of your way."

Roy nodded and grabbed for the biophone.

Johnny noticed that Charley was now blinking in a semblance of wakefulness.  
The oxygen had done its work. Gage saw that Charley's bruised and dirty hands seemed to be weakily guarding his stomach so he pressed on it in a check. The man winced and brushed Gage's fingers away quickly.

"A little bit tender, isn't it?" Johnny asked, reaching again to see how far the rigidity extended away from the sore spot.

Charley nodded when he found he couldn't talk easily.

"Anywhere else past your lower right side?" Johnny asked.

Charley shook his head.

A groan of rope lifted metal rewarded all of their ears. The cat's roof swung away under many gloved hands and spun off of the construction worker and the sparking saw de-powered down immediately.

Charley screamed in pain at the sudden release of weight and he sagged.

Johnny regained a clear airway on him with a jaw thrust and waited for the heavyset man to recover from his near faint. "Ok, gimme his collar. We board him up first before we move him out of here." he told the others around him.

A few tense minutes went by as all struggled to immobilize the cat driver as safely as they could without jarring his fractured legs.

"Ok, he's free!" said Stoker. "Ready to pull him out?"

"Yeah.." said Roy, looking up from his vital signs notes. He glanced over at Gage. "Johnny, I can't get any reception down here. His I.V.'s gonna have to wait until we get him to the top."

"He's doing fine on my end. Still semi-conscious." Johnny agreed.  
"I no longer have to hold his head."

DeSoto redirected his attention back to their patient. "Charley,..We're going to pull you out and it's gonna hurt. Try not to help us, ok? It'll only aggravate your injuries further."

Charley waved a grimy hand in understanding. Two men moved to either side of the man and they lifted the longboard up slightly so that hand shovels could dig out a boulder blocking their way. Charley screamed in pain.

Roy and Johnny held onto his shoulders "You're almost out, Charley."  
said Johnny. Roy brought the man's stokes near and he was nestled inside of it with the oxygen tank sandwiched in at the foot end. They strapped him securely.

Then Stoker hollered up to Cap to take up the slack.  
"Cap.. Good to go.."

Once on the road, Johnny and Roy took off their gloves and helmets and got to work.

Roy opened the biophone and contacted Rampart while his partner got out the BP cuff and took Charley's next blood pressure. "Rampart, this is County 51, how do you read?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie McCall looked up as the buzzer sounded over the base station door. She went inside the glass room and toggled a switch. "Unit calling in, please repeat." she specified as she turned on the rescue tape recorder.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Rampart this is Rescue 5-1." grunted Roy, catching his breath back after the climb.

##Go ahead, 51.## said Dixie.

"Rampart, we have a male approximately 42 to 45 years of age.  
He's been a victim of a vehicular accident involving a construction caterpillar in a rollover. He's sustained multiple injuries resulting from it :  
a compound fracture of the right femur with an arterial popliteal tear on the left that's also a probable non-angulated fracture. Direct pressure seems to be working for that. I would say that he's lost about a 1000 cc's of blood all total. There's tenderness and some rigidity to his lower right quadrant. We suspect some internal hemorrhaging there. He also has a cut over his left eye without signs of obvious skull fracture. However,  
he remains somewhat stuperous and diaphoretic even on high flow O2. He's exhibiting early moderate signs of shock. Stand by for the current vital signs.  
Rampart, he has been successfully extricated from a limb entrapment." DeSoto reported.

##Standing by, 51.## said McCall.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie rapped on the window and Dr. Brackett looked up from the slate he was reading as he was walking by the ER's main desk. He set his chart aside and immediately joined her inside the callroom.

"What have you got?" he asked her.

"Caterpillar driver in a roll over. Mechanism sounds worse than what's really apparent to the medics." she told him.

Kel read what she had down for notes. "51, this is Dr. Brackett. Have you obtained your new vitals signs yet?"

##That's affirmative, Rampart.## Gage answered, taking the phone from Roy while DeSoto reached for the drug box. ##Vitals signs are : BP is 90/50, pulse is rapid and weak at 116, respirations are regular and only slightly labored at 20. He's responsive to verbal commands.##

Brackett looked up in worry as he said. "Dixie, set up Treatment Four. He might be bleeding pretty fast into that stomach of his. We may need to open him up right here in the ER to stop it."

"Right, Kel." she said and she left the room.

The wavy haired doctor thumbed the talk button. "51, start an I.V. of Lactated Ringers, wide open. Also draw blood for a type and cross. Is your ambulance at the scene yet?"

##That's affirmative, doc. It's just arrived.## Gage told him over the airwaves.

"What's your ETA?"

##Our ETA's approximately twelve minutes. Pulse's still very regular and palpable down to the wrist.##

"What's the scope showing?"

##Normal NSR, Rampart. Do you want us to send in a strip?##

"Negative, 51. Get him in here as soon as possible without delay. Send me one only if problems develop on him rhythm wise. Continue monitoring his vital signs closely, every five minutes, and maintain a high level of perfusion for those fractured legs. Hyperventilate him if you have to, to keep both feet viable."

##10-4, Rampart.## said Johnny. He hung up his connection while Roy quickly got an antecubital intravenous line in on a fast flow. An ambulance attendant pulled the stretcher next to the two paramedics while other fireman kept up the elevation on Charley's leg end of the stokes and his I.V. bag. Gage soon took that and snugged it under Charley's shoulder to keep it pushing fluids while they wheeled him to the waiting rig.

"I'll ride in with him." Roy announced as he set the medical gear inside the Mayfair next to Charley.

"Ok, meet you there.." Johnny said picking up both their helmets and glove pairs to throw into the squad's open window.

Cap shut the ambulance doors and rapped on them. The boxy rig took off with the squad right behind it. Hank watched them go and then he said to dispatch on his walkie talkie. "L.A. Engine 51. My company and Engine 8 are out one hour for brush detail to wash down spilled gasoline from a rolled over construction caterpillar at the bottom of a ravine."

##Engine 51.##

-  
At the hospital, the ambulance slowed and drove under the skyway. It backed up to the emergency doors and the attendants got out.

Johnny pulled the squad up next to their patient's transport and quickly went to assist them with moving Charley inside. He took and held up the nearly empty I.V. while they fast-walked the man inside. Passing off the test tubes full of blood to Dixie took only a few seconds.

Brackett met them in the hall and said. "In here."

Johnny handed off the I.V. bag to one of the attendants just before the door closed between them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He and Roy went to the receptionist's desk to await Dixie's return from the lab.

"Coffee?" DeSoto offered to his partner.

"No thanks." Gage sighed, rubbing his face in fatigue. "Isn't lunch waiting for us back at the station?"

"Today it's not. The engine's still in that canyon if you recall."

"Oh, that's right.." Gage said, disappointed. "Well, that's ok. We can always stop off at a hamburger stand somewhere on the way back."

"What do you mean, we? I'm not hungry yet. I don't wanna drive anywhere extra this morning. I've a feeling it's gonna be one of those shifts again." Roy complained.

"Fine. I'll drive then. Gimme the keys.." said Gage, not turning around from where he was sipping his coffee while helping himself to the medical supplies they needed to replenish. He held out gimme fingers impatiently.

"Try not to scratch our new paint job. Charlie the mechanic will have a bird if we damage the squad before what he considers a decent interval's passed." DeSoto replied, handing over the cluster of keys on a bungee coil.

Gage ignored him. "Think he's gonna make it?" Johnny asked Roy as he threw a head towards Treatment Four.

"Yeah. His pressure went back up. Even before surgery. I guess he was just emotionally shocky like we figured. I know I wouldn't like kissing the dirt so intimately while knowing five tons of machinery was about to roll back down the hill on top of me." Roy quipped.

It was a few minutes later when Dixie rejoined them.

Smiling, they pro-offered her a cup of Folders before she could offer them an empty wash bowl complete with a green bottle of Phisoderm with which to scrub their dirty faces clean.

"Beaten at my own hospitality game, eh?" she joked.

Roy replied cheekily.....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny and Roy with a bobcat, looking down.  
Photo: Johnny and Roy with a fallen man.

Photo: Gang follows bobcat down.

Photo : Johnny holds an I.V. over stokes.

Photo: Close up of a man trapped in debris.

Photo: An injured leg.

Photo: The whole gang loading an ambulance.

Photo: Roy and Johnny resupplying solo.

Photo: Dixie and Brackett take a rescue call. Closeup.

*  
From : Cory Anda Sent : Monday, June 19, 2006 2:14 AM Subject : The Hidden Danger..

"We learned from the best.." chuckled Roy.

Johnny grinned, too. "You were a good teacher in the paramedic program. Your mother hen instincts must have ...rubbed off on us pretty bad... I wasn't even aware I was under your past carefully sowed influence,  
until you mentioned it to us just now, Dix.." Gage laughed.

"Now, fellas,.." Dixie demurred. "...everyone knows that flattery works ninety five percent of the time it's used in practice...except when you're a male with the last name of Gage trying to pick up a date at a single's bar." She crooked a half smile.

"Very funny.." Johnny said sarcastically.

Roy grinned even bigger. "Yes. It was.."

Dixie smiled right back. "I consider myself buttered up. What's the real story here? What else can I do for...such a nice pair of ..., hard working young men such as yourselves today?" she teased, pouring on fake flirtation by the pound.

Johnny sighed and came out with it. "When are the paramedic refresher tests coming out this month? Brice told us they were coming last fire call.." he admitted with a pained expression,  
his word coming out in a rush like a bad hiccup.

"Johnny..You know I can't give out classified information like that without getting into a lot of trouble. Kel would have my hide if I told you, personally and professionally." Dixie scoffed mildly. "Roy, I'm ashamed of you for letting him even try to wring it out of me."

"I'm the very picture of innocence today, Dix." said DeSoto.  
"Since when has Johnny ever done anything that wasn't his own idea to pursue in the first place? No, wait a minute.  
Don't answer that.." he said, rubbing his forehead in discomforture.

"Thanks a lot.." Johnny piped up, insulted. "Look, we'd better get going before I drop down to the floor in a hypoglycemic attack.  
Wouldn't you know?..I'm starving--..."

"..again..." said Roy.  
"..again.." finished Johnny at the same time.

McCall laughed. "Why don't you eat here in the cafeteria? That food's closer..."

"You call that food?" Johnny made a face. "I can eat it when I have to.  
Only the burgers,..heh. But today, I need some real nourishment. Roy thinks we're gonna have a busy day of---"

"Don't say it!" Roy interrupted.

"...runs.." Johnny finished matter of factly.

The walkie talkie immediately began to speak in a response.  
##L.A., Squad 51, are you available?##

Roy lifted up his radio. "Squad 51, 10-4, L.A.." he said.

##10-4.. Stand by for a response with Engine 51...##

Roy, Dixie and Johnny all froze into listening poses.  
Gage's eyes opened in interest despite his growling stomach.

**BEEP....BEEP....BEEP..**

##Station 51, Battalion One. Minor excavation fire.  
At the Sandstone Mining Company's secondary shaft. Two miles south of West Ridge Pass. Two miles south of West Ridge Pass. Cross street:  
Pacific Coast Highway. Time out : 10:02.##

Roy nodded, fumbling with the box of supplies and their EKG monitor,  
until Johnny rescued him by taking the HT out of his hand to acknowledge the call for him.

"Squad 51. Responding from Rampart General.." Gage told dispatch.

##Squad 51.##

"Gotta go, Dix.." Johnny said to her with a short, friendly wave.

"Here.." she said, pulling out a candy bar from her smock's pocket.

Johnny barely caught the Mounds Almond bar when it sailed through the air in his direction. "Oh,.. thanks but I don't like---"

"Just shut up and thank the lady already.." Roy elbowed him. "If you won't eat that, I will.." he mumbled in irritation through the side of his lips.

"Thank you, Dixie. Saved my life.." Johnny fired back dutifully as they turned away from her for the ambulance entrance.

"Good boy." Roy retorted. "And I'm driving. You're too shaky to."

Gage's next acid comment was drowned out by the sound of Captain Stanley's voice replying back to L.A. from their location on the road. ##Engine 51. 10-4, L.A. Our ETA is eight minutes.##

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A thin stream of smoke billowed out of a horizontal mining tunnel opening,  
staining the placid ridge's sun soaked landscape with a rusty purple soot cloud. There were no obvious signs of open flames raging from down below.

Sirens mingled then tore apart from the rush of the Santa Barbara traffic growing louder as the engine and squad met up and flew around tight gravel road hairpin turns to get to the scene. Clouds of dust rose when the two red, light flashing vehicles screeched to a halt.

Captain Stanley stepped off the running board, meeting his two paramedics alongside the squad. "Gage, DeSoto,.. L.A. informed me that the new fire here was detected by radar plane. The pilot reports that no miners are around now and none have been in the shafts today. This might be that old subterranean coal fire smouldering up again under the soil. So let's put it out and then check for any workers who might've snuck into their primary shaft down the road in an attempt to rack up some unofficial overtime."

"Right.." John said, buttoning up his overcoat. Roy was already putting on his gloves.

Cap faced his other men. "Marco, Stoker,..Get an inch and a half played out.  
Kelly, you're going down to see if you can scout out the source." he said,  
glancing and sniffing carefully at the mossy hole. The smoke had already abated somewhat so he added. "Don't think we'll need an air bottle just yet for this one, Chet. It's a fairly cut and dry ground fire as far as I can tell.  
Probably just a dust flare up with no kindling."

"Ok, Cap. I'll be careful. I'll radio in every minute." Kelly told him.

"You do that. Go get a torch, lifebelt and a rappeling rope. The shaft lift's not in service today. There're no workers." Hank said as he stepped back into the Ward's cab to give his status report to Battalion.

The others moved away to their fire duties.

Stanley scraped off some mud from his shoe absently as he watched them set up. The clump of clay fell and landed heavily onto the ground and a dust eddy wafted up from the impact and drifted under the engine's tires. The swirl moved on and passed a freshly dead body of a jack rabbit partially hidden in the grassy rut running along the middle of the road.

Nearby, a bird faltered in flight, recovered, then faltered again only to tumble end over end in a crash to the ground. It landed in a fluttering heap and soon became still.

No one noticed the absence of animal sounds or the sudden silence falling around them for the engine's radio was still filling the air with situation chatter and firefighting conversations.

Cap waited for a gap in vocal traffic. "L.A., Station 51 is out forty five minutes.  
Our incident appears to be a resurgence of the perpetual underground fire Five Beta already noted by Headquarters on the "to monitor" list. All company shafts appear to be completely uneffected...There's no damage to property."

##10-4, 51. I'm standing down. Keep me posted.## replied Battalion One from his car's frequency.

"Will do, Battalion.." said Hank in reply. He sighed and pushed down his walkie talkie radio, looking up. "Mike, go ahead and charge up that hose just to be on the safe side while Johnny and Roy man Chet's lifeline. We'll give him just a quick down then up and then we're out of here after a fast ground heat survey update on that old fire."

"Ok..Cap." said Stoker, jogging off to the tall red and white painted water valve clearly marked by the circuit breaker building.

A few minutes later, Mike turned off the hose and peered into the steaming darkness of the ventilation hole, satisfied that every flame had been extinguished.  
All of the guys stood around the new shaft, talking about the peculiarity of the blaze. "It shouldn't have lasted down there this long, Cap." Kelly said, belting up.  
"Why wasn't all the oxygen used up in the first few minutes after it broke into the shaft from the substrate enough to put itself out?"

"Random breezes..?" guessed Gage. "There is a storm front in the mountains.  
See?" he said, pointing to the Sierra Nevadas on the horizon.

"And rainwater moving down the overflow might account for better ventilation.."  
Stanley concluded.

"Bingo.." Chet grinned, tightening his helmet while Roy checked his belt's buckle and the rope hitched in a double loop attached to it. "Yeah, well, the sooner I get down there to see if it'll stay out this time, the sooner we can all get back to the station to fix up some serious chow. Are you as hungry as I am,  
Gage?"

"You have to ask?" Johnny groaned miserably.

"Eat.." Roy said, shoving the candy bar that Johnny had left on the dash of the squad at him.

"Oooo, thanks.." said Kelly, snatching it from Roy's gloves. He quickly stole one of the candy bar halves and then tossed the last one up into the air so Johnny had to catch it fast before it hit the dirt. He munched happily. "Thanks for the work reward ahead of time, pal. That was nice of ya.." he chuckled.

Gage scowled. "Hey, that was mine.."

"Was.." said Chet, disappearing into the hole, his rappelling equipment jingling as he climbed over the lip and started heading down in the direction of his flashlight's beam. "And it was real yummy, too. Remember.. you snooze, you lose.."

Johnny had to quickly pop the candy into his mouth before Chet's descending tension fell onto the rope he was holding for safekeeping in between his knees.

Kelly continued downward cautiously. "Cap, the air's still fresh down here, and it's not hot in the slightest."

"Ok, pal.." said Stanley.

Gravel skittered and echoed up the slantwise shaft. Then there was a particularly loud slide past the usual, followed by a sharp thud. Suddenly, Chet's rope whipped taut, nearly dragging everyone manning it off of their feet. Marco was driven to his knees, balancing on the edge in a strain to support Kelly's fallen weight. He grunted,  
and saw a flash of silver as Kelly's light tumbled away and down. "Canisters?"  
he grunted. "Cap, something not right down there. I thought this tunnel was supposed to be zoned for air venting only, not storage."

Cap fell onto the rope with the others. "Chet?! You all right?! Chet ?!!"

The rope creaked back and forth in the empty black space yawning in front of their noses.

"He's in trouble." Cap swallowed tightly. "Let's get him out of there. Fast."

Painstakingly, hand over hand, the gang retrieved inches back. Finally Marco grabbed Chet's belt at the waist and together, the five of them hauled him out onto the grass. He was limp and his eyes were closed slits. Lopez gasped.  
"What the h*ll happened? He was barely down there for twenty five seconds."

On a sudden impulse, Roy knelt, placing an ungloved hand onto Chet's stomach over his turnout where he lay. "He's barely breathing, guys."

Johnny shot him a crazed look. "What?!" And he got on Chet's head instantly to monitor his pulse.

"Holy---" Hank exclaimed while Stoker and Marco sprinted to the squad to get the gear and the oxygen.

Roy checked Kelly's eyes quickly. "I don't understand this. Did something hit him on the head to knock him out?"

Johnny quickly ran fingers through Chet's hair, feeling for wetness. "No..there's nothing. Plenty of dust but no injuries here. Or anywhere else that I can see.  
Are you finding anything?" Gage asked incredulously with alarm, thoroughly stunned.

"No. Let's get him to the road into com range." said Roy.

The three firemen gathered Chet's unconscious form into their arms after they pulled off the safety belt and hastily loosened Kelly's jacket collar.

They carried him in anatomical alignment on his back, without jarring Kelly's neck or spine.

Cap was beside himself with anxiety. "What-..what's wrong with him guys?  
Think he slipped or something? The smoke wasn't thick enough to turn or be even the slightest bit bad. I checked. "

"We don't know, Cap. It's... I... something's not right with him that's for sure.."  
Roy stammered.

The gang set Chet onto the ground while Roy took over guarding his airway.

Johnny froze in his check for broken bones, listening suddenly as he peered at Chet's paling face. "He's stopped breathing." It was Gage's turn to shake his head in denial. He turned a valve on the resuscitator and started Chet on forced, oxygenated ventilations. Mike soon knelt and took over the job while Roy carefully reassessed Chet's pulse.

Cap fairly flew to the engine. Marco followed. Lopez held onto the door,  
biting his lip while Cap got a hold of L.A. "L.A., this is Engine 51. We've a man down at our location. Send an ambulance and--" He stopped.  
Marco was shaking his head, apparently dizzy. "Marco, you ok?"

Marco blinked and took a breath. "Yeah.. uh...yeah."

Cap studied him closely. "Ok.." he retoggled the switch on the cab mic. "..And a full mining survey team. We've got an odd occurrence of respiratory collapse following exposure to old coal smoke. Advise all units coming in to wear their air masks."

##10-4. ETA on your ambulance is ten minutes.## Right away, another Klaxon sounded over the radio, assigning a Ground Fire Hazmat team to 51's incident.

Hank tossed down the mic. "We're getting out of here. Marco, get your air bottle on. We'll help the others get into theirs. I messed up somewhere.  
And I've messed up big.."

Lopez was already hefting his scba apparatus onto his sweating back.  
But he was having trouble. Cap pulled it on for him and got him into his mask. "So it's gas fumes?! Coming from where? G*d d*mn it! " Stanley snatched up four air bottles, one for each man awake, and himself.

"I saw...saw cyl-- cylinders, Cap. Silver ones. Down the hole.."  
Marco coughed through his faceplate.

"Go help the others.. I'm getting mine on. Tell them--" Cap took a hesitant step forward, with his burden, and then went down as if poleaxed.

Numb, his senses reeling, Marco yelled aloud. "Cap?!" He bent over and nearly tripped over Hank's legs. He started to pick up his HT to turn it on to call out a warning for Johnny and Roy, when dizziness gripped him, too.

Lopez fell.

For a moment, Marco thought he managed to get out his jacket halligan for a wild swing at the side of the Ward to sound a warning signal, but then the rising blackness cast him deep into a soundless void.

-  
"Did you hear something?" Roy asked the others who were working to hook up Chet to the EKG monitor.

Johnny looked up from the short airway and ambu he had begun using on Kelly. "Me? No. All I hear is Chet expiring O2 after we put it into him."  
he replied in a rush.

Stoker was too occupied with manning a BP cuff with a stethoscope to notice the question.

Gage felt a resistance to a generous bag squeeze. He removed the face mask. Kelly coughed out a chest full of oxygen and then some shallow but regular breaths began spontaneously through his new semi-conscious state. Johnny blurted out. "That did it."

Mike grinned when he saw some finger twitches. "120 over 74." he reported to Roy and Johnny. Then he got out a non-rebreather mask set to maximum literflow and turned on the suction unit in case it was needed.  
He slipped the clear mask over Chet's face with a light grip, his face still full of strained concern."Rate's about thirty, guys." he said, studying Kelly's chest movement. "If you don't need me anymore, I'll go check on that ambulance. Cap and Marco went back to the engine to call for one three minutes ago."

"We're ok now. Go on ahead." said Johnny, shivering, as he opened up the biophone case. ::That's odd. It's not even cold outside.:: he thought.

Stoker jogged around a bush towards the mining road.

Gage reached for the phone as another chill gripped him. He stopped and let it pass before setting up the transmission aerial. ::Funny. There it is again. Oh, no.. Could this be a hostile gas working on me?:: he wondered.  
In mid thought, a spasm doubled Johnny over and he made himself look at his partner, who had gripped his arm in a reflex.

Roy was staring at him, too, half reaching for his own throat, a horrified expression on his face. He stood up, stumbling, trying to reach for an air bottle near them on the ground, when he fell like a stone.

Johnny saw details only muzzily as a numbing paralysis gripped his arms and legs, and constricted his lungs. It tumbled him onto his left side.

"Gas..." he groaned, hearing the live handy talkie chatter on obliviously in his turnout's pocket. He tried to reach for the biophone to knock the receiver free into an open channel, but it was too far away from his hands in the dust. Desperately, he launched out a foot and dimly, he felt his shoe hit something heavy.

Gage blacked out.

-  
Mike Stoker glanced across the ravine to the mining company's entrance gates. There was no sign of a transport yet.

Sighing, he started back the way he had come. Absently, he kicked a stone and it bounced off at a right angle and came to rest close to the gaping mouth of a dead robin.

Stoker jumped. He hadn't noticed any dead birds before on the way to scope out for the ambulance. He nudged it with a toe. "Oh, sh*t."  
He immediately stifled any deep breaths and he started shouting on the tail of his last one. "Cap?! We got gas in the area! Everybody! Emergency! Get into your scba now..!"

A twinge of pain quickly silenced him and he was forced to blow out the rest of his breath forcefully. His eyes fell on the carcasses of a rabbit and another bird. Both were dead, like the robin had been.

Thoroughly unnerved, he took a calculated risk and started running back for the rest of the gang. He rounded a corner and saw....

Things were blurring.. Spinning... Mike blinked and shook his head.  
He let out a shout of dismay. Johnny and Roy were crumpled at Chet's side and both weren't moving. And under the engine,  
Stoker could see two pairs of sprawled arms and legs.

Going blind with suffocation, the engineer crawled towards Roy after failing in his attempt to strap on his own activated air mask from a tank near DeSoto's hand. Nausea pitched Mike onto his stomach and on top of Chet. His last thought was that he was glad Kelly was still alive and breathing.....

Silence filled the gulley as the firemen gasped, threw up, then lay still.

Then the serious minutes began to tick by.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: A dead Western Robin on the ground.

Photo: Johnny down, in pain.

Photo: Roy coughing in scba gear, with difficulty breathing.

Photo: Gage feeling his head while on the biophone.

Photo: Man being ambu ventilated.

Photo: Biophone close up with the phone knocked loose.

Photo: Chet Kelly smirking by the engine, outside.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:33 am Subject: One Tracked Mind..

At Rampart, the red light went on over the glass enclosed base station next to Dixie McCall's desk. The head nurse set aside her chart filing and made her way into the room, turning on the recording reels. "Unit calling in, please repeat.." she said on reflex.

Nothing came over the air, just the sound of wind blowing.

"This is Rampart Base on the air. Go ahead with your transmission please.." she tried again.

Dixie frowned when she thought she heard a faint scuffling and some very quiet strangled gagging.

Startled, she automatically snatched up the red phone over the radio that gave her an instant open tie with the county's fire department dispatch. "L.A. County, this is Miss McCall at Rampart General Hospital. I've an incoming call from a paramedic unit that's just been initiated. I've a confirmed open comm but no one's talking. Sounds like they've got some real trouble. Could you run a trace?... Yes, I'll keep their radio frequency open. All right, I'll be standing by.." she replied to L.A.  
"I'm turning our FD scanner on right now."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chet opened his eyes to the sound of cool hissing. He reached up muzzily and found a heavily flowing oxygen mask parked cock-eyed over his chin. He remembered that moments ago, he had spat out something hooked over his tongue.

Rolling over dizzily, he spotted an oropharyngeal tube lying in the dirt next to him. ::That oral was mine? What the h*ll happened to me:  
he thought with a heavy confusion. Groaning, he looked up from where he propped belly down on his elbows and spotted Roy and Johnny lying in a heap on either side of him. Stoker was out, too,  
twisted haphazardly around his legs. "Guys?! Can you hear me?!"

Kelly's knee plished against a used ambu bag assembly as he untangled himself from his unconscious crewmates and got up onto his hands. Instinct made Chet pull his plastic oxygen mask back over his nose and mouth, hastily pressing it down to gain more protection. ::They're all skin flushed. And the white vapor hanging over us is new..:: his mind screamed at him. Sucking in frightened gasps,  
Kelly looked quickly at his surroundings for a better solution to safeguard himself from a suddenly gone-hostile breathing environment.

He found it.

Struggling, Chet groped for the air bottle's mask lying near Mike's reddened hand and he put it on himself as fast as he could. Dragging the tank near, he hurriedly felt the carotids and breathing attempts of all three firemen lying near him.

Unlike the others, Gage wasn't even trying to cough through his fast, very shallow respirations.

In pain from a tremendous headache, Kelly set the oxygen mask that he had found being used on himself over Johnny's face and cranked up the flow to try and boost the paramedic's far weaker vital signs.

Satisfied that Mike, Roy and Johnny were stable for the moment, Chet got onto his feet in a hunt for Marco and Cap and for more air bottles to fit into place for his downed coworkers.

Weakness kept Chet from standing and he was forced to drag his air supply's tank weight behind his crawling feet by its straps.

A little clarity allowed a gasping Kelly to hit the distress button on his bottle's PASS device as he made his way towards the parked,  
light flashing Ward engine. Its piercing audible wail comforted him as it told the others that he was coming.

As Kelly drew closer to the road, he could hear L.A.'s hail, for his station's reply, repeat itself continuously. ::They know. Oh, Thank G*d.:: he thought as he slowly dragged closer to the truck. ::But it won't hurt to tell them to hurry their *sses a little faster.:: Chet thought. He reached a trembling glove into his pocket and hit the emergency squelch tone on his handy talkie until it began sounding out triple whistles over a live channel.

All radio chatter coming from the engine ceased as the main frequency was instantly priority cleared by all units working around the county to await a further explanation or reply. Kelly kept crawling with the HT tethered around a wrist as he spoke, his thumb pressing down over the talk button. "Mayday... *gasp* L.A.,..Engine 51.. Mayday..." he gasped desperately. "Environmental ex--exposure.. Unknown vap-- vapor.  
From the mine..." he yelled through his face plate.

##Engine 51, how many?## returned L.A.

"Six..... Code..I." sighed Chet, dropping his head. "All above ground.  
*cough* by the eng--..." A spasm silenced him instantly.

Kelly found he was no longer able to talk, gagging in agony at the fire in his lungs. :: Is this methane on top of the CO? Somewhere, that perpetual coal fire's broken through to the surface in a new place close by.::

##Engine 51. Do you read? Engine 51. Respond by HT distress toggle if you can't speak. ## L.A. ordered. ##Hazmat and two alarms have been notified. Their ETA is at a maximum of three minutes out.  
Engine 51, do you read?##

Chet ignored the voice, his vision tunneling tightly when he spotted Marco and Cap lying face down in the dirt beneath open cab and equipment doors.  
Lopez already had an air bottle working for him to the point of half-conscious coughing, so Chet crawled past him and got to Hank's limp body.

Flipping Cap over, Chet tilted Hank's head back adequately while he sagged over him. A resting forehead on Stanley's chest confirmed a slow rise and fall of continued air movement by feel to Chet without his ever having to open his eyes as fatigue began rolling in waves over him from trying even a half upright crouch against the pull of gravity.

With a jerk, Kelly got away from the impending blackout by hastily flopping back onto his stomach. Chet got Cap into a flowing air bottle mask as fast as he could manage after the hypoxia stars had left his eyes. Then, with an effort, he finished what Hank had started by completing the long trip back to the rescue squad with three new air bottles in tow for Stoker, DeSoto and Gage.

The last of these were fitted to them successfully when Chet's gas sickened condition swept him once more into unconsciousness.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hazmat Incident Commander studied the mine company's landscape from a distance. He had made sure that all of his crews were carefully upwind of Station 51's location.

"Have you spotted them all lieutenant?" he asked his safety officer.

"Yes sir. It seems they had time to get into their air bottles before blacking out."  
replied the fully hazmat suited firefighter. "But we can't tell their statuses, those vapors are too dense."

"Easy son, we'll get to them just as soon as we can. You know I'm not risking any more men down there until we know what the situation is fully. Tell the Operations Officer to set up for Level Two Haz Mat. Showers and full respiratory suit precautions. I'm not convinced the mechanical sniffers were accurate on those methane and carbon monoxide readings. There may be another gas working down there that we haven't detected yet." said the IC scoping his binoculars once more over all the vomit stains.

"I'll get everyone started.." said the Safety Officer. "Whatever those fumes are, they weren't fast acting enough to prevent those paramedics from reviving someone during the early minute intervals. We spotted a bag valve mask lying next to them and a resuscitator supply fitted with a nonrebreather, turned on, by a used oral airway."

"Maybe that was the fireman who eventually called out the mayday. Have you found him yet?"

"Yeah, he's the fourth casualty you're seeing lying by the paramedics with the HT around his arm. His jacket says his name is Kelly."

"Keep having our people trying to contact him through his talkie. He may still be responsive somewhat despite being unable to move." said the fireman in charge. "Once I'm convinced things are safe enough through which to enter, we'll stokes them all out to Decontamination."

Soon, the IC was joined by Battalion One and all factors were worked out and decided upon in a course of action.

Six minutes after the Hazmat response arrived, suited crews entered the Hot Zone to rescue and decontaminate Station 51's fallen firefighters.

-  
It was several hours later in ICU at Rampart Hospital.

Station 51's crew had all been admitted to the same open nursing station in six different cubicals of vacuum controlled isolation rooms arranged in such a way where they could all see and hear each other.

Chet smiled a few seconds after his eyes reopened around his oxygen mask.  
::We're safe now, partially because of me. Gage is never gonna live this down once he finds out what went on after I woke up out there.:: he thought in wonder.

He caught one young isolation suited nurse newly studying him from her place in front of the vital signs monitors wired to all of them at the nurses desk. "Yes, folks. Chet Kelly probably has single handedly saved the lives of his entire station crew today. And all in one shot, too." he mumbled happily to himself.  
"Johnny Gage, you are gonna eat your heart out big time once you find that that fact's the absolute truth."

His iso room door opened just then, and Chet soon found himself face to face with a hazmat suited Dixie McCall and Doctor Brackett.

Chet opened up his mouth and started speaking hoarsely...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Hazmat Incident Commander- Captain of 110's.  
Photo: A hazmat Level Two shower. Photo: A coal fire vent, newly exposed.

Photo: Kel and Dixie in isolation clothes. Photo: A hazmat team providing patient care.

Photo: A hazmat unit. Los Angeles County. Photo: Johnny Gage out on a gurney close.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:31 pm Subject: Full Circle------

"Doc,...h-how are they?" Kelly whispered.

"They're all fine. Johnny was touch and go with a bit of acute respiratory distress syndrome but that proved just temporary." replied Kel. "He only entered into crisis because his blood carboxyhemoglobin levels were near forty percent. Anyone would pant a little with that kind of PO2 shortage. The hazmat triage paramedic said your treating him probably made all the difference in the world, Chet.  
You bought him more voluntary breathing time than he normally would have had following that kind of carbon monoxide exposure."

"Then that's all it was that got us? Carbon m-monoxide?" Chet blinked in confusion. He didn't even wince when Dixie drew out a followup arterial blood gas from his arm.

"And methane. No special decontamination was needed in the end. Just a lot of O2 and a little Amyl nitrite to get rid of the cyanide traces built up in your systems from the fresh coal smoke blowing in from the road. That's what saved all of you from serious cases of atelectasis. The medication was injected at the scene until your I.V.s could be established to prevent bronchial cast formation caused by protein rich fluids potentially washing into your airways.

"Now with Gage, we had to blow off all of his CO a little more rapidly. He's just finished a twenty three minute session in a hyperbaric chamber to speed up its half life decay inside of his bloodstream. His PO2 levels are finally out of the eighties." Kel shared.  
"You yourself only have fifteen minutes or so before you're cured of your carbon monoxide poisoning. It exists in the body for only seventy five minutes or so on one hundred percent oxygen."

Chet looked at him skeptically, still feeling the effects of smoke inhalation deep in his chest.

"It's true.." soothed Dixie. "The worst is over for you and the rest of the gang. They're all resting. See?" she said, throwing a hand about the ward.

"Then what are you two still doing inside of those funky space suits."  
Chet asked. "What aren't you telling me?"

Brackett and Dixie exchanged looks of amusement. "We found that Marco's infected with a particularly virulent pathogen."  
said Kel.

"What's he got?" Chet asked with worry.

Dixie tried to hide her grin. "He's got the chicken pox. Only he hasn't erupted out into the weepy lesion stage yet."

"He's got the chicken pox?!" Kelly frowned, still not believing.

Brackett nodded. "Yep. Its antigen came out clear as a bell in his blood work. We had to isolate each of you into separate self contained cubicals until we learned your exact histories with the disease. You're the last one to awaken to tell us yours. Have you had em?"

"No. Can't say I've had the pleasure." he grumbled miserably.  
Chet sighed softly when he felt Dixie place a comforting hand on the side of his cheek to ease the not so happy news and he closed his eyes wearily.

"As I thought." Brackett said. "Well then, it looks like all six of you have earned a protracted stay at Rampart until the pox runs past the highly infectious stage."

"You're kidding. You mean nobody on my shift's had them before?"  
Chet said with surprise.

"Nope." said Dixie. "Not even Roy with his two school aged kids."

"What about our folks at home? How are they gonna cope?"

Kel met his eyes evenly. "Do you really want to subject your friends and family to the chicken pox like this? It's the best part of summer right now. Not too cool. Not too hot.." he tried reasonably.

Chet quieted down. Just a little.  
"Cap's gonna hate this. He's probably already his own worst enemy for missing the escalated coal fire conditions under us."

"Not his fault.." said Dixie. "I spoke with your Battalion Chief to get what kind of gases he thought you fellas were dealing with in the triage area. Apparently, secondary fire crews found a very recent surface soil failure above a very large, new, burning vein of coal. A hundred foot section of the road upwind of your rescue site gave way just when you went down into the shaft and caused a silent steam explosion, releasing years worth of trapped gases. No one could have foreseen that happening. Not even your captain." said McCall with conviction.

"So, in spite of wanting suddenly to be put in a zoo for my future spots, how am I doing right now?" Kelly asked, sitting up a little higher in the bed.

"You're going to be perfectly fine. Your chest roentgenograms were negative. Your kidney functions are showing normal. Your EKG shows absolutely no signs of secondary smoke inhalation related cardiac ischemia. All we have left to do is assist in displacing the elevated level of carbon monoxide from your blood's hemogoblin." Kel said, raising both eyebrows thoughtfully.

"And how are you going to handle that?" Chet asked, his leariness of hospitals and doctors showing almost as strongly as Hank Stanley's did.

"Me? I don't personally have to do anything 're doing all the work fixing yourself just by breathing in the humidified oxygen flowing through that face mask of yours." Brackett smiled. "Try and get some sleep. It'll speed up your detoxification. I'll have Dixie go on rounds to tell the others that you're finally back in the land of the living."

"Appreciate it, doc." Chet folded his hands behind his head. "Oh,  
and Dixie?"

"Yeah?" asked McCall, turning at the door in her iso suit.

"Could you deliver a message to Marco Lopez for me?"

"Sure. What do you want me to tell him, Chet?"

"Tell him to watch his back when this pox thing's finally over.  
Looks like the Phantom's gonna be real busy paying him back for a week's time spent in the hospital.." Kelly gestured empathetically with his non I.V.'ed arm.

Dixie just rolled her eyes before she left the room on Brackett's heels.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was Day Two at Rampart in the Isolation Ward.

By then, Chet Kelly felt that he knew every irritating mannerism his coworkers possessed, and then some, by the time lunch finally rolled around.

Captain Stanley, in the cubical to his left, took his tray from the dietary aide and smiled sweetly at her. "Thanks for the food,  
miss." And he cracked the lid open, trying not to make a face.  
"Smells wonderful."

"Cap,." grumbled Marco, trying to take a nap in his sheets, with his back to the others, said. "Don't you know it's wrong to tell a fib? You're lying now. I can tell."

Cap huffed and slammed the aluminum lid back down over his plate of turkey and reconstituted mash potatoes. "Oh,  
really? What if I meant it in spite of things?"

"Impossible, Cap. You're not the contradicting type. You can get real mean, but you definitely never get deceitful.  
Ever." said Gage around his oxygen cannula.

"This coming from a man with two prongs shoved up his nose.."  
Chet gestured.

"Shut up already, Chet." roared Johnny. "We've heard enough of your Freudian observations to last a lifetime."

"And whose lives did I save last week?"

The rest of the gang fell silent.

"That's right. I saved all your hides. Least you can do is allow me an ear or two whenever I got something to say for at least a little while." Chet said with some sting.

Gage met Chet's gaze eye to eye. "Since when have you got anything worthwhile to say to us anyway?" Johnny told him crankily.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So that's how it happened.." said Roy, as he and his partner waited for the rescue call to finish airing through the overhead speaker. "You offended Chet in his highest charitable benefactor mode when we all were quarantined at Rampart last week. Johnny, I think remembering what you did then's keeping Chet from speaking to you any today.."

"You think so?" Johnny asked, parking his helmet back onto his head as Roy reactivated the squad's lights.

"Yeah, I probably know so." Roy returned, equally firm.

"Well, good. I think I'm actually enjoying the peace and quiet for once." Johnny said empathetically with anger.

"You sure could have fooled me. Just a minute ago you were really fretting about what hidden shinanigans he might be up to."  
Roy exacerbated.

"Things change. I change. Especially when Chet does."  
Johnny said with heat. "Now are we gonna roll on this call or am I gonna have to get out and push the squad all the way there?" he said holding out the piece of paper containing the address he had written down to his glaring partner.

"I'm going. I'm going. We gotta wait a tad for the slower engine, remember? Now hush and let me drive this thing without you doing it from the perverbial back seat." Roy fired right back.

L.A. unexpectedly cancelled their response. ##L.A., Station 51. Return.##

In the Ward, Marco grumbled. "Aw.. there's goes another chance to burn off the rest of my scabs with some real fire heat. That's not fair at all."

"I got some calamine lotion with your name on it.." said Roy, holding up the bottle out his driver window.

"You know I hate the smell of that stuff, Roy. Thanks but no thanks. Epsom salts and another serious bath'll do me just fine."

"No baths while on duty, Lopez. You'll lag behind changing back into your uniform because you'll be too wet to be speedy enough." Cap told him with a firm jerk of his thumb.

The others chuckled as they peeled off their jackets and helmets to return to the kitchen and the rec room to resume downtime activities.

Gage grinned. "You can always elicit Boot's help with your itching.  
He loves to lick people when they don't want him to."

"You keep him away from me, Johnny. He must have pulled a dozen sneak attacks on me last night as it was. I didn't get any sleeping done at all for keeping up my guard." Lopez complained.

"Maybe a little sleep deprivation'll de-sensitize your skin a little more,  
Marco." Cap grinned, offering up a bright side.

Gage and Roy laughed as Marco glared at them all while trying not to scratch at his withering pox marks. Lopez grumpily snatched the topical's bottle out of Roy's idle hand and he immediately peeled off his uniform shirt down to his white tank top to dab some on liberally with the flat of several fingers using the squad's side mirror.

"Any words of wisdom from the wise on this subject matter?"  
Gage asked Kelly directly, with a smile.

"Why should I have anything better to offer him, Gage? I'm not the paramedic here." and he stormed off, dragging Boot after him by the collar so he wouldn't leap up and lick off the medication Marco was slathering onto his skin.

"Wow, what a grouch.." Johnny hissed to the rest of them in a subdued voice.

"Yeah, well at least Chet's talking to ya again." Stoker remarked.

"You call that talking? I liked him better when he was staying mute."  
Johnny told him no nonsense.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the middle of the night when the next response toned all of them out of a sound sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: "Mark Panitz" Date: Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:41 pm Subject: Service Dog Rescue

The tones sang out. ##Squad 51, we've got a 911 call with a dog barking. 3560 Riverside Drive. Cross street Hollywood Blvd. Enhanced 911 shows a person with a service dog at that address.## said L.A.

Roy and John got into the squad and responded.

John said. "I wonder who called us?"

"Who? The person or the dog?" Roy replied.

"I'll bet the dog made that call.." John said.

"We'll soon find out." replied Roy as they pulled away.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:35 am Subject: Man's Best Friend..

"You know, Roy? I don't think I like this new experimental phone system they're working on. It may be great keeping an open line whenever someone's incapacitated and not able to talk.. But at the onset, there's not enough information given to any crew who's supposed to be getting there. I mean, dog barking.. assistance dog. It could be anything going on at that house." Gage grumbled while he and Roy tightened their helmets under their chins a little more.  
"Me? I'd rather know what I got coming.. Be it a man down,  
child trapped, or a house fire..... ya know?"

Roy smiled. "Everything the fire department does is for a good reason, Johnny. I've been with working for them long enough to know that usually when Headquarters springs a new idea like this 911 thing, it's usually revolutionary in nature and awkward only temporarily. That network's probably gonna save a lot of lives."

"Just three little numbers.. What's to keep your kid from dialing those up whenever he feels like it?" Johnny mused.

"The chief says there's an operator on the other end who'll call right back to see if there's truly an emergency at the incoming call address that covers that."

"Still wastes valuable time if you ask me. A neighborhood watch gives better info on what's happening with someone better than an electronic phone system. I mean, what difference does it make whether or not we know a person's got a help dog with em or not?  
That only means they're physically handicapped in some way.  
Either being blind, or deaf, or with challenged mobility.. That's something a paramedic can learn getting face to face with a patient... ...in about two seconds.." Gage insisted.

"Try not to fuss about it too much, Johnny. People like you are a little slow warming to anything new, but once you've been convinced that an idea or new technology works, you settle down and decide that you feel comfortable with it." DeSoto told him.

"With this idea though?...Not in a million years. There's been too many bugs with the 911 Sifter. And what does enhanced mean anyway? That things sound louder?" Gage's face was dubious.

"No, it means that L.A. can track a phone's location on a map and discover where it's at when a caller can't talk themselves. All a victim has to do is kick a phone off the hook and leave it there after dialing out." Roy told him.

"You sure know a lot about this funky new system, don't ya?"

"Sure I do. I'm a paramedic trainer, remember? Gotta keep up with the latest for all those trainees we get coming through.." Roy grinned cheekily. "I'd be happy to show you all the paperwork on it..."  
he offered.

"No thanks. I'm a staunch supporter of the eyes and ears first theory.  
Just like Cap. I don't wanna know about the 911 system, not until it's been ratified into our county's fire department policies, and only when I've been officially ordered to learn about it." Gage told him firmly.

"Suit yourself. It's always a good thing to keep current...Remember how surprised you were when Cap dragged out that life net to catch us when that apartment building was threatening to flash?" Roy asked him.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"You didn't even know it existed until Cap had that other company drag it out to use for us. And that was OLD technology.." DeSoto shared.

"So? Do I look like I suffered for not knowing about it?" Gage snapped.

"Well, no. Not exactly. But it's always a good thing to be prepared.."  
Roy told him.

"I'm not a boy scout.." Gage grumbled. "Turn a right turn. Here."

Roy never lost his smile as he rounded a bend onto Riverside Drive.

Johnny's face completely washed into a hard line. "And there's yet another 911 bug biting us in the *ss again right now, Roy. Get a load of that situation.." he said angrily.

A house was engulfed in flames down the block and its address matched the one on their notes. And an assistance dog was waiting for them, seated nervously in its harness on the lawn,  
torn between training to stay until help arrived and running back into the house after his companion. All Johnny had to see was its fidgety behavior to know that the house wasn't the slightest bit empty of human life.

Roy pulled up a hundred feet and upwind of the dwelling while Johnny got on the squad radio. "L.A., Squad 51. Respond two pumper companies to our address! We've a fully involved single story wooden house structure on fire with a possible victim or victims inside. Their exact number is unknown."

Gage was livid as he burst out of the squad's cab and got into his turnout jacket. "You wanna tell me again that some operator didn't shut out another caller on this incident who had more information simply because he or she felt the 911 enhanced information was enough?"

Roy didn't have anything to say to that while the two of them ran cautiously to the nearest window to look for a body on the floor.  
When they got to a particular bedroom, the harnessed dog leaped back into the house, utterly ignoring the fire around them.

"Hey!! You stupid dog.. Get back out here. What do you think we're here for?!" Johnny was worked up, and worried.

DeSoto let Johnny use that anger to heighten his awareness.  
But he also wanted Gage secured onto a safety rope before he went anywhere, too. "You going in?"

"Yeah.. The air's not hot yet. Looks like this fire started in the attic.."  
Gage said.

"Want an air bottle?" asked Roy, tying off a rope around Johnny's waist.

"No, that ceiling's firm, and the rest of these windows are already blown out. Ventilation's good enough to enter for me. But what do you think?" Gage asked him.

"I agree. I'll give you two minutes. Uh,...follow that dog..." Roy pointed with a glove.

"No kidding. Be ready for me, Roy. I'll bring em out one at a time if there's more than one person in here.." Johnny said.

Roy fed Johnny slack as his jacketed partner jogged off through the flames in pursuit of the anxious help dog. Then he got on his handy talkie and gave a report. "L.A., Squad 51. We've got one going in on the west side of the house on a lifeline with HT support. There's clear evidence that the house is still occupied. Also, send police assistance for crowd control." DeSoto said as concerned neighbors got a little too close on the effected house's lawn for his liking. "Folks, listen to me... Move back to the street.. It's not safe. Please,.. everybody...just get back." he told them.

Then Roy concentrated on clearing the window frame free of shattered glass with his jacket halligan, shaving away splinters and sharp pieces of melted stripping in a couple of sweeps. "Johnny?!" he shouted into his HT. "You've got a minute left! Make it count in there!"

-  
"He would have to be orange in color. That d*mned dog blends right in.." Gage muttered as he searched, feeling around doors carefully before he kicked them in.

He found a man in the last bedroom on the bed. He was an unconscious adult in his forties with shortened and crippled arms and legs.

A phone receiver and cord was strewn and melted some distance from the bed. It was apparent that he hadn't been the one to make the phone call. Johnny looked at the worried, trained dog in utter amazement. The man was still alive, breathing shallowly.

"Good dog.. I got him.. Come on.. Let's go, boy.." Johnny said as he hefted up the small man onto his back into a carry. The helper dog whined and danced away from sparking embers that were burning his paws and landing on his rich tan and white coat. "I've got your guy with me.  
Now let's get out of here. " Johnny told the dog, giving him a shove back towards the dark window with a boot.

He tugged on his rope to let Roy know that he had found someone who needed active rescuing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DeSoto felt the pull back signal and he began peering into the window again after Johnny. About thirty seconds later, Johnny reemerged, facing backwards until he got his victim's butt perched on the window sill in preparation for a dead weight shift with his fresher partner.

"He's already breathin' light.." Johnny warned, coughing out some thickening smoke.

"Where'd you find him?" Roy shouted, taking the man's weight onto a shoulder while he waited for Johnny to climb out the window.

"Exactly where the dog said he'd be.. In the back bedroom. I got some of his medications in my jacket pocket. He's got a ton of them. I grabbed all I could."  
Johnny said.

"Let's get him to the squad. You ok, carrying him?"

"Yeah.. just go get the gear laid out.." grunted Gage as he slung the man back over his back once again in a vertical carry by the arms.

"Where's the dog? Didn't he stay with you?"

"He did. I know he did.. He was right behind me.." Gage said insistently.

"I'll tell Cap about him once he gets here." Roy said grimly as he jogged away. "L.A. called out the rest of the station."

Johnny looked back towards the house that was growing brighter and brighter as the fire consumed more and more of its internal structure.  
The window they had come through, was now completely obscured with smoke and there was a sound of crashing debris as the ceiling gave way just beyond it. "There's no going back in that way.." he whispered.  
"I'm sorry, boy.. We've got to leave.." he called out.

Then there was no more time to waste.

Roy helped Johnny lay the man down onto the sidewalk near the resuscitator.  
A quick check proved that the man had given up trying to breathe because of all of his smoke exposure. DeSoto looked up. "He's respiratory arrested. Gimme the trigger.." he gestured at Johnny, who was trying to get his wind back while getting the biophone set up to send telemetry at the same time.

Gage passed it over with a correctly sized oral airway. "I'll scope him."

Johnny snatched open the defibrillator and laid passive paddles over the man's chest around the sooty shirt Roy had torn open. "He's SVT."  
he announced. Then he felt the man's neck. "Viable.. I've still got a carotid.."

Roy nodded while he worked to deliver ample oxygen into the man's lungs.

Sirens grew in the distance and it wasn't much time at all before Engine 51 appeared, sparkling red nimbuses before itself onto all of the sleeping houses as it arrived on scene with Engine Company 24.

Hank stepped out of the cab and gave another fire report on what he saw happening in front of him. "Engine 24, cover the east side in full scba in a frontal attack. Engine 51, wye line to a hydrant and supply Engine 24 with water support. Battalion One, we've one victim so far with Squad 51. Assign at least two responding ambulances. We can use the second on fire standby."

##10-4, Engine 51. I concur with your assignments..## said Battalion as he watched the house burn.

Then Cap crouched down near Johnny and Roy."Need any help here?"

"Yeah, Cap. Patch him in, would ya? Johnny's still a little fried."

"I'm not overheated, Roy. I'm just worried about the dog.." Gage said,  
holding the biophone against his shoulder as he panted, sucking in the cool night air through his teeth as he recovered.

"The assistance dog?" Hank asked.

Roy nodded. "He led Johnny to his owner and then didn't make it back out again. We didn't have time to do a complete house search for anyone else before our only way to the outside collapsed in behind us..."  
said DeSoto sadly.

"Dogs are resourceful. Instinct would have driven him to cooler places.  
Don't worry, we'll find him. And don't fret about missing a chance at getting out another victim. Phone Directory says this man lives alone.." Hank told him as he rubbed the sweat off the dwarfen man's skin for a twelve lead reading with a glove. He placed the EKG monitor's limb lines carefully, too, and afterwards he switched on the machine and turned it so Roy and Johnny could see all the changes on the screen while they delivered their care. Then he placed the defibrillator and the opened drug box so that it was within their easy reach.

Hank got on his radio. "Marco.. Chet.. do a quick house search. We've a missing work dog somewhere inside. Keep safe in there and pull out at the slightest risk of further collapse. Have a fully charged hose backup team with each of you when you go inside.."

##10-4, Cap.. Looks like the north end of the house's not burning yet#  
Chet reported over HT. ##We'll both be going in there. Battalion's got all of our accountability tags.##

"Copy that, Kelly." Hank rose with a "you're set" nod at his two paramedics.  
"I hope you find him.." he told his men by the house over the radio.

"Cap, one more thing.. I've got this man's medications in my jacket over there. Could you get them out for me? I'm just about ready to give Rampart my patient report..Maybe we could get a name off one of them or something or a medical chart number that can clarify what his normal baseline condition is." Gage asked.

Cap retrieved Johnny's abandoned, smoking, jacket from the lawn and dug around until he found them. "Are there five bottles?"

"Yeah... just the five. thanks.." said Johnny, already focusing on the voice coming over the phoneline.

Hank made himself useful at Battalion's side monitoring the battle against the fire. The wind blew up several times despite the darkness and that made the chief order up a standing water curtain to protect the surrounding trees and homes nearest the blaze.

Gage spoke to Dr. Early after grabbing a page full of notes from Roy.  
##Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?##

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny and Roy put on helmets, night squad close.  
Photo: Squad drive by night city.  
Photo: Fire burn house far night.

Photo: Springer spaniel close at night.

Photo: Gage squad acknowledge night. Photo: Roy and Johnny at night turnout check window. Photo: Gang night hose burning house.

Photo: Battalion 10 or 4.

Photo: Gage back carry man night.

Photo: Gage with HT outside night.

Photo: Roy and Johnny treating a non-breathing man, with biophone.

Photo: Stoker in engine. Cap, Marco discuss at driver door, night.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:54 pm Subject: Good Things Come In Little Packages.

##Go ahead, 51.## said Joe Early. ##I read you loud and clear.##

Johnny sighed as he watched Roy grab what he knew he needed airway and cardiac medication wise."Rampart, we've a male, approximate age, in his mid forties. He's a victim of acute smoke inhalation. He's currently unconscious and respiratory arrested on assisted ventilations at fifteen liters. The datascope is showing a nonspecific supraventricular tachycardia with an irregular widening QRS interval. Pulses are palpable. We're sending you a strip: Leads Twelve. Request permission to start an I.V. Also, there's a pre-existing physiological complication. Our victim has severe achondroplasia.."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie McCall, who had just joined Joe in the receiving alcove, looked up. "Dwarfism? That could get tricky if it's due to osteogenesis imperfecta. His bones and cartilage might be extremely brittle."

"He's survived to the age he is. That's a good sign in those kinds of cases. Usually, brittle bone syndrome kills those afflicted before they even have a chance to leave their childhood years." Joe turned back to the base station radio and pressed the talk button.  
"Go ahead and start an I.V., 51. Make it Normal Saline and run in 250 cc's initially to offset the effects of shock. What are his vital signs?"

##Rampart, vitals signs are : Left arm BP, 82/60. Right arm BP, 70/44,  
pulse is 170. Skin is cool and diaphoretic. Pupils are dilated.  
There are no signs of surface dermal burns. Breath sounds: His chest is bubbling in the upper trachea just below the vocal cords on auscultation. Deeper lung sounds are clear. But his PaO2 perfusion is growing poor.##

"10-4. Position the patient to ease ventilations and prepare to intubate either with a pediatric EOA or ET tube. If necessary, prepare for a rapid sequence induction using ... 51, what do you estimate your victim's weight to be?" Dr. Early asked.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy looked up at Johnny as he bit the packaging off a 1000 ml saline bag. "80 pounds, maybe..."

Johnny quickly nodded his head in agreement, for he had carried the man for several minutes. "Rampart, we are pretty sure he's around eighty pounds or so."

##Ok,..Then prepare one to two mg/kg of ketamine, I.V. for a paralytic agent only if the esophageal tube placement's unsuccessful. We can use its brochodilating effects.## said Dr. Early. ## I'm reading atrial fibrillation with Wolf-Parkinson's-White syndrome. Looks like his heart's atria are getting pre-excited, so avoid any AV nodal blocking agents like adenosine in order to slow his rapid cardiac rate. I'm banking on the intubation process to do that for us manually first, through a little vagal nerve stimulation. He may cardiovert back to normal on his own during the process. But be prepared for V-Fib at any time and treat him accordingly.##

"10-4, Rampart. After our victim's airway secured, I've a medications history to relay to you." said Gage and he set the phone down to relay to Roy what their orders were.  
##Understood. I'll be standing by..## answered Joe.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Careful, Joe." McCall grinned. "You're starting to sound a lot like Kel with that using-RSI-to-slow-the-heart move." said Dixie into Joe's ear.

"And why shouldn't I use a such a good idea as that? Kel's not a top notch cardiologist for nothing, you know. The less electricity used on someone.."  
Early chuckled, raising both eyebrows at her.

"...the better." Dixie completed for him. "Uh huh, I know. You learned that one from him, too. I'll go call for a cardiologist and respiratory therapist for him. Let me know if you get a name, I'd like to pull all of his medical records and have them ready for everybody before he arrives."

"Call an orthopedic specialist, too. He may be more familiar with electrolyte imbalances than any of us are concerning this man's adult/child sized body."  
added Joe.

"Today, it'll be Dr. Keenan." Dixie said, leaving the room.

Joe turned to wait for an outcome from Station 51's two paramedics' current treatment effects. ::They've more to worry about on their hands right now than they probably realize.:: he thought privately.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny looked at Roy once he had a patent I.V. up and running into the man's arm. "What sizes do you want?" Gage asked, referring to the Broselow tape color coding system.

"He's a blue.." DeSoto said very fast. "A 5.5 uncuffed ought to do it. I couldn't get the EOA in worth a d*mn. He's spasming too much." Then Roy looked at Stoker, who was using an ambu bag very carefully, to artificially breathe for the man. "Get ready to hyperventilate him on my word. It'll be about sixty seconds after I get this paralytic injected. He won't bite down on your suction tube when this goes in, all of his muscles will get relaxed until I'm done. All right?"

"Yes." said Stoker, checking the liters left on the oxygen tank he was working from. He called for a second one over his HT from the nearest engine when he saw that its level had slipped below 500 liters psi.

##More O2, on the double.## Cap affirmed when he heard the request.

"Here's a 14 stylet and a 2 straight bladed laryngoscope." said Johnny, passing the instruments over that he had torn free of the intubation set he had laid out on the man's stomach. "Want me to do it?"

"Nah, I'm good. Prep the ketamine with a two hundred cc bolus, and hook it up, piggyback until his O2 sats are high enough for an attempt."  
said Roy, looking at the EKG monitor's pulse oximeter readout.  
"He's just at 94."

Gage nodded at Lopez. "Ok, Stoker.. Knock yourself out. Nice and easy. I've got the cricoid hold against distension." he said,  
grabbing the ring around the sweaty man's trachea with a couple of fingers. He pressed down on it slightly while his other hand started delivering in the sedative.

Roy got busy, aligning himself onto his elbows at the top of the man's head. He whistled, piercingly, without turning around or moving from his position until a fireman flicked on someone's squad headlights so he could see what he was doing.

Deftly, he slid the man's tongue out of the way to the right with his intubation blade. He felt the jaw lift up and loosen as the medication began to work. "I got em.." said Roy as he saw the white vocal cords shot through with swollen venation.  
"I'm through.." he said, advancing the endotracheal tube to around fifteen centimeters."Ok. Stoker, reattach the bag here and start in while we listen for placement."

Johnny looked up at a anomalous blip from the EKG monitor.  
"He's gone bradycardic. Rate's fifty. I'm giving him .5 mgs atropine I.V. and pushing it, until you've decided that you're through monkeying with him..." he prodded.

Roy grinned at being teased and kept listening in all fields around the man's chest for the man's new breath sounds. "Equal bilaterally. No gastric noise. Right first time."

"That's why I let you do it. I'm not very good with the little people.  
I haven't seen enough of em yet.." said Johnny.

"Felt no different than a four year old child." DeSoto admitted while he marked off on a piece of tape where the tube settled along the man's lips. "He's at 15.5 cm." he reported. "And that 21 gauge butterfly's working like a charm here.." he said, eyeing up the I.V. bag's drip chamber.

Both paramedics turned their attention back to the EKG monitor.

"He's nearly normal. Elevated sinus rhythm at....120. I can live with that." said Johnny, turning up the I.V. to hurry their patient's fluid replacement. "Let's see what 250 cc's more'll do.  
I'll just bet we can get him down into the nineties by the time we get to Rampart.."

Roy grabbed up the biophone. "Rampart, we've established an endotracheal tube. And I've learned that there's some erythema, and a deposition of soot in his throat above the vocal cords."

##10-4, 51. Deflate your tube's cuff to minimal levels, even to the point of allowing a small leak, to prevent iatrogenic tracheal damage since he's already been compromised. Continue to monitor his vital signs every five minutes and transport as soon as possible.  
Nice work, gentlemen. His EKG's looking more than just adequate#  
said Joe.

Gage grinned from ear to ear. "Hey, Roy, Stoker, would you look at that? They found him.."

DeSoto and the engineer straightened up to see Chet and Lopez running with a four legged burden.

A dog pound crew met them, and took the light brown assistance dog into their arms, wrapped in a yellow shock sheet. Cap tapped Marco on the shoulder. "Nice job. Now go get the squad's nearly spent first oxygen cylinder from over there and go see what you can do for him.."

Gage got Lopez's attention when he caught on to what he was doing. "Here's a fresh mask.." he said, tossing a non-rebreather at the fireman for the dog. "How does it feel to be a hero?"

"Awfully nice." answered Chet for Marco. "Thanks, Gage. I'll let you know the moment that sweet little mutt wakes up."

And with that, Kelly and Lopez were gone.

"Huh." Gage said after they had gone and were deeply involved tending to the dog's breathing recovery needs.

"What?" asked Roy, covering up their patient as a pair of Cadillac ambulance men strapped him onto their wheeled gurney.

"Guess that 911 system really works." Johnny summed up simply.

"What makes you so sure all of the sudden..?" asked Mike, who was still being the stricken man's lungs on the bag valve mask.

"Somebody had to call out the dog pound to come treat him and take him to the vets.." said Gage in exasperation. Then he started smiling. Hugely.

-  
Johnny and Marco, along with Chet, were at Rampart for their post fire physical examinations, waiting for a treatment room to open up.

Dixie was having fun egging them on. She said....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: A sooty Johnny Gage on the biophone.

Photo: An intubated, bagged man on a CPR board.

Photo: Roy preparing a shot at night.

Photo: Joe Early on the intercom at Rampart.

Photo: A datascope defibrillator showing sinus rhythm.

Photo: An endotracheal tube sliding past vocal cords.

Photo: City workers treating a smoke succumbed dog with oxygen.

*  
From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy Date: Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:53 pm Subject: The Clever Means..

"I've never seen an ansier trio of nervous firefighters in all my working days.." she giggled. "It's just Dr. Morton who's gonna be giving you fellas your exams, not Dr. Frankenstein.."  
mused Dixie.

"It's not the raising the dead part that I'm worried about..."  
mumbled Chet.

Gage smacked him on the arm for impropriety.

Roy, the designated driver as their medical followup on Cap's orders, broke right in. "Uh, Dixie.. how's our man doing? He..seemed to be coming around a little on the way in."

"He's holding his own. A bit of Albuterol ended that tracheal spasming that you were dealing with in transit. And I've just heard from the dog pound that his dog, Trip, is gonna pull through just fine, too." McCall grinned, taking a sip of her coffee.

"That's wonderful. It's about time we pulled a live pet out of a burning house again." smiled Marco, looking pleased.  
He high fived celebrating hands with Chet, who immediately winced when a small burn was palm slapped.

Johnny grabbed his wrist and shoved Chet's hand back into the bowl of ice water where it had been soaking seconds before. "Ah, ah, ah....This is only first degree, Chet. If you don't want it to blister into the second, chill out." he glared.

"Is that a pun?" Roy asked his partner.

Dixie lost it completely. A minute later, she composed herself enough to ask on the latest of the mine fire that they had all experienced first hand. "So, what's being done on the property now? Is the whole place still a death trap?" she asked the gang.

"Not anymore.." replied Gage. "The fire department found an engineering firm who's developed a heat resistant "grout"  
to pump in on the fire. It's a mixture of sand, cement, fly ash, water and foam that oozes in around all the burning material. Headquarters is coining it 'Thermocell', because it's helping to cut off the underground fire's oxygen supply while allowing the blaze to cool down a whole bunch."

Chet added more. "That stuff is being used to fill that trench tunnel I was overcome inside of to bury the illegal canisters of acetylene stacked there. Would you believe those things Marco saw were being stored only ten meters from an exposed coal seam."

"Acetylene?! Isn't that highly flammable?" Dixie exclaimed,  
setting her coffee cup down with a thump.

"OHHhhh, yeahhhh.." said Kelly empathetically pursing his lips. "I could have been blown sky high on top of getting asphyxiated then. The barrels are all drowned now but the danger's not quite over yet."

"Oh? How so?" Dixie asked.

"Unmined coal can smolder when exposed to air only one seventh of that on the surface. Especially the bituminous coal being found in this part of California." Chet answered. "Nope. Looks like that underground mine fire's gonna be burning on and on, for centuries.  
That's thanks to some jerk who parked a backhoe on that road without washing off the tires first before leaving it there."

"What happened?" asked McCall.

Roy elaborated. "Coal dust is opportunistic. It can spontaneously combust without warning in certain specific conditions of temperature and humidity. For the previous two days, the backhoe had been mucking out slag and coal collection ponds to remove coal fines. A security guard failed to notice a fire that started on the backhoe rear tire the morning we got there to handle our emergency. Facility personnel believe the cause of the fire was those coal fines, which had adhered to the tire, going literally up into smoke. Some of the thick coal mud in the ponds had not been exposed to oxygen until it was churned up by the tires of the backhoe. It's blatant negligence that some worker ignored instructions to wash his equipment vehicle's tires when he left those ponds for the day."

"And that's why the surface road failed.." murmured Dixie, putting two and two together.

"Umm hmm." nodded Johnny. "The coal vein underneath all that asphalt caught fire and absolutely powdered all the concrete making up the drive in just a couple of seconds."

"Now how is the fire department gonna put out THAT fire?" Dixie wondered.

Marco told her. "The fire's gonna be extinguished by injecting gaseous nitrogen into the crevasse over all the hot spots. It'll be easy getting in there because some pavement's still intact."

Chet contributed. "And the rest of it's gonna be fought with foam smothering bore holes, tunneled side shafts into which water can be poured, and digging out the glowing coal veins that are actively embering."

Dixie sat back onto her stool. "Sounds like you boys've done all your homework with this incident."

"We sure have." said Chet. "Anything that's likely to kill you in short order always gets dissected and solved before it can happen to someone else."

"Especially in our line of business." added Lopez.

"I shouldn't wonder.." McCall smiled.

She looked up when Dr. Morton appeared around the corner, wearing his stethoscope. He noticed them, stopped in his tracks and he beckoned impatiently at them with a finger. "Ok.." sighed Dixie. "Who's gonna be first?"  
she asked, eyeing them all.

The fire sooty three fidgetted and played a quick game of paper, scissors,  
stone where the young doctor couldn't see them.

Roy crossed his arms over his elbows and watched with mild amusement for an outcome.

Gage lost.

" *Groan* " Johnny grimaced. "Looks like it's gonna be me..." he said, hanging his head.

Johnny Gage took his post fire examination and blood test,.. like a man.

-  
Later that day in the station, Roy looked up from his newspaper.  
"How's your arm?" he asked his partner.

Johnny made a face and flexed his sore inner crook sporting a band-aid.  
"It still hurts." he sighed. Then he dropped the ice bag he had been holding over the bruising. "What is it about doctor these days? Why do all the teenaged zit faced lab technicians always seem to know how to draw arterial blood gases better than the doctors they all work for?"  
he exclaimed.

Chet didn't look up from the couch where he was brushing Boot.  
"Maybe it's because those doctor no longer have to sweat the small stuff so much because they know that all they have to do is snap their fingers and the menial work gets done for them."

"Highly unlikely.." Hank gruffed from where he was doing the lunch dishes. "Don't doctors have to pass physical skills tests just like paramedics do at regular intervals to keep up their certification?"

"Probably.." mumbled Roy, around his glass of milk. "I wouldn't know for sure. Johnny and I just take orders from them."

"Speaking of orders. Guess who won that bet, Roy." said Johnny.

"What bet?"

"The one we kicked around getting to that 911 call this morning..."  
Gage said pointedly.

"Oh..." Roy ejected, remembering. "Who won?"

"I did. The DOG made the call out to 911.. There's no question about it."

"How do you know that?" Cap asked, frowning. "Is a dog even smart enough to know how?"

Bark! protested Boot.

The gang ignored him, rivetted by Johnny's news.

"The guy was on the bed six feet away from his motorized wheelchair."  
Johnny told them. "And it had manipulator arms on it."

The others blinked in total incomprehension.

Johnny sighed at their obtuseness. "It was parked on the opposite side of the bed next to the window... Tell me how a crippled man in a fire could make an emergency call about it, then be so worried about parking his wheels neatly out of the way long enough to collapse onto the bed afterwards.."

Roy set down his glass of milk. "You're right. That doesn't make sense."

Chet leaned forward on the cushions, scrubbing Boot's ears affectionately.  
"You mean to tell me that service dog knows how to dial 9-1-1?"

"Why not? A child can do it.." grinned Gage. "Why can't a dog? Especially one who's smart enough to answer doors and open refrigerators after beer cans on command.."

Kelly blew a raspberry at him. Then he murmured into Boot's ear. "Say, boy.  
Go dial us all up a pizza. Heavy on the sausage..."

Boot barked and jumped off the couch immediately.

Gage grinned and gestured at the departing tail of their station's mascot. "No sooner said, than done.."

The rest of the gang giggled warmly at his joke.

FIN

Episode Thirty Four, No Sooner Said.  
Emergency Theater Live

---------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Morton, Gage, Roy talk in treatment room.  
Photo: Chet on couch making a face.

Photo: Johnny grinning at the kitchen counter.

Photo: Roy, good smirk.  
Photo: Marco Stoker, and Cap, amused.  
Photo: Boot in a closeup.

Photo: A mouth watering pizza.  
Photo: Coal fire bore holes in a road.  
Photo: An underground coal fire, spontaneously combusting. *  
Emergency Theater Live =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

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